JAFARISTEW'S Masters Of The Universe Whitman Origin Tribute Character Art!!

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JAFARISTEW'S Masters Of The Universe Whitman Origin Tribute Character Art!!

To help celebrate the 30th Anniversary of Masters of the Universe, I decided to do some character cards, this time inspired by the unfinished Whitman comic from the 1980's, done by Adrian Gonzales. You can see more information as well as the art from this interesting piece of MOTU history here.http://www.he-man.org/forums/boards/...-origin-comic!

I looked at this comic thread extensively, & then brought in my own ideas of what I thought this Whitman Origin of MOTU would look like if made into a more "adult-collector-style" animated series. The comic itself is a bit darker than most official MOTU stories, but still contains the classic good vs evil, fantasy meets sci-fi that we all love. I wanted to pay homage to what I think this comic could represent by making "character cards," hopefully to help bring to life what I think is an interesting take on the origin of Masters. The color choices were made by me, as I re-thought how these classic characters could be colored if presented to me for the 1st time (so rather than just using the pre-established schemes we all know, I thought about the descriptions of the characters themselves as an influence... example: Skeletor buck described as a reptile body).

So here is Skeletor, He-Man, Teela, Man-At-Arms, & Anom (I think this is the 1st fan-art done of this particularly obscure character!)

If this thread proves to be popular, I will continue & do some more character cards based on the Whitman Origin, & include Shalda, Tez, Moon Spinner, the Shepard's Son, & the Demons.Special thanks to my brother Brian for all of the feedback & advice, & to my brother Randy for his enthusiasm!
PART2:http://www.he-man.org/forums/boards/...GINS-Art-Cards!!

Hi Bearshow, I appreciate the compliment! With Teela, she has a very loose styling in the comic & her costuming changes 3 times in a few short pages, from a Skeletor Disguise, to her more normal ceremonial style dress or tunic, to the Snake Armor, so I wanted to come up with a way to merge all 3 of those costumes for her "standard look"... so I came up with this "Snake Hood" type of Cleric costuming where both her cloth & armor look like a Red Spitting Cobra, (that I believe her original toy armor is based on). The comic over all has a more "Holy" feel to it than a MOTU story normally does (with the Shephard's Son etc.) so I thought this was befitting. It's more of a "Sacred Snake Order of Maidens" type of vibe I think, lol, but I like it too... She was the 3rd drawing in the series, but the one who's look I started developing in thumbnails first, as both her (& Anom) were not as distinct by the artist's pencil drawings.
Thanks again!

i said this years ago... and i will say this again ...i think you draw the BEST looking females...
that being said these are awesome..

Thank you so much gatchagrey, that is one of the nicest compliments I have ever received on my art... yesterday, today, or any day.
I think it helps that I try to use real life models as reference for any of my works to give it that added personality.
Again many thanks, you are to kind!

wow this one might be my favorite art set of yours yet jafari. i am not familiar with this comic & have never seen anom before but i really like his whip (laughter), also i really like that look for teela. i like how the snake is like her clothes. also i like how man at arms reminds me a little of extendar. the colors are really cool/
i know this is a new thread but are you working on any more of these? i like this concept very much. thank you.

wow this one might be my favorite art set of yours yet jafari. i am not familiar with this comic & have never seen anom before but i really like his whip (laughter), also i really like that look for teela. i like how the snake is like her clothes. also i like how man at arms reminds me a little of extendar. the colors are really cool/
i know this is a new thread but are you working on any more of these? i like this concept very much. thank you.

Hi D&D! I have plans for more art cards based on the Whitman Origin, (the characters presented in the story itself) as well as maybe an "expanded universe" to keep the project running with other classic MOTU characters.
If there is interest in this project it can be sooner than later... what say you?

Hi D&D! I have plans for more art cards based on the Whitman Origin, (the characters presented in the story itself) as well as maybe an "expanded universe" to keep the project running with other classic MOTU characters.
If there is interest in this project it can be sooner than later... what say you?

i for 1 would love to see more these, i am interested on your take & colors for shalda & more. thanks.

More Origin Art coming...

I've decided that I am going to do more of the "MOTU Origin Series Character Cards!"

I have already selected an additional 40 characters to do art cards of (like the ones above) from various MOTU print sources over the years to help celebrate the 30th Anniversary of MOTU.
So expect to see more of this series in the coming months with both classic, concept, & obscure MOTU characters (including the Whitman series) to make a type of Origin "Expanded Universe"...

Pretty interesting visual take on MOTU Jafari, to me it kinda a more John Buscema Conan vibe then even the Alcala mini-comics did, while I'm not against different incarnations of MOTU when done well (and the jury's still out on DCNU's run), I still have a soft spot for Filmation. Although this Teela is at least more interesting then Battle Ground Teela (who, to me anyway, just looks like a blond version of Buschema's Belit) There's definitely less an emphasis on technology then in Filmation cannon, except for Anom's laser whip (is he like a human version of Beast Man?). Anyway, great job, apologies for taking so long to comment on this...I need to get more active on the forums again.

Visit my art page at: http://theblock.deviantart.com/ , if you like my work and have an account there to, feel free to fave or watch me, I could use the street cred !

Pretty interesting visual take on MOTU Jafari, to me it kinda a more John Buscema Conan vibe then even the Alcala mini-comics did, while I'm not against different incarnations of MOTU when done well (and the jury's still out on DCNU's run), I still have a soft spot for Filmation. Although this Teela is at least more interesting then Battle Ground Teela (who, to me anyway, just looks like a blond version of Buschema's Belit) There's definitely less an emphasis on technology then in Filmation cannon, except for Anom's laser whip (is he like a human version of Beast Man?). Anyway, great job, apologies for taking so long to comment on this...I need to get more active on the forums again.

Thank you theblock! I take any comparison to John Buscema as a HUGE compliment! I love Filmation as well, but wanted to get away from that influence (as it is such an iconic look & changed the characters forever) for this particular project as I really wanted to base it on the ideas presented in the Whitman Origin & how that might look as an animation. With the Whitman project being only a handful of pages, I have decided to expand it for the future to include design cues from other vintage MOTU printed media, like the mini-comics, foreign comics, concepts, & design presentations. I like this project a lot & needed to find what other characters I feel could be represented in this story or could be included here. The project will contain very well known classic characters, as well as little known characters (like Anom) & some characters that may only exist in concept drawings, but are all officially MOTU. All of the recent reveals in things like the Power & Honor Foundation Catalog, along with the international presence & early works like this Whitman comic have got me very inspired to gently redesign MOTU, & see what I think really works outside (& inside) of their most iconic looks, even if it's only a 10% tweek, as that may be right for this version of Eternia & it's inhabitants.

Teela wears 3 different outfits in the Whitman comic, the classic ceremonial dress, the classic snake armor, & a Skeletor costume, I tried to mesh the 3 of them into 1 new look (although I will also present another one of them later in this series) to form a type of Dungeons & Dragons cleric look, as the series has more religious overtones than any MOTU mythology I have seen. Sure we always have the good vs evil struggle in MOTU, & I would never relate religion to MOTU, but this series did seem to have a slight underlying tone (like the Shepard as Adam) & I wanted to present that very mildly here as I think it's a very small distinguishing quality of that Origin story, so Teela almost has that type of Clerical look, & some of my color & character choices will be based on what I think could work in that version of MOTU with that slight design tone.

There is technology in this version of Eternia, although it is more closely to that of the "Texiera-Era" of mini-comics as you can see by Anom's laser whip (which you mentioned) & MAA's laser rifle. These were 2 elements (along with the Battle Chariot (aka Battle Ram) & the Sacred Shrine which has the "Lifemold" that transforms the Shepherd to He-Man for good) are presented in the original Whitman Origin story, so I present that element of technology here as well.

Anom does seem to represent a Beast-Man type character in the Whitman Origin, but is not affiliated with Skeletor, & who's look (with the iron gloves) is kind of like Beast-Man meets Jitsu. It is possible that Beast-Man was not fully developed when this comic was made but seems unlikely as both Beast-Man, Gy-Gor (even Demo-Man & Red Beast) all seem to share some early developmental process history that proceeds this comic, but only Skeletor & Beast-Man where created for the final ideas presented for the vintage toys & media. So Anom may or may not be related, & may just be an idea for the comics story only (to get Battle Cat's origin in there) but certainly the similarities are there. His whip looks like a laser whip in the comic drawings so I based it on the whip Blade had in the 1987 movie.

I would love to spill the beans about the 40 characters I have chosen for this, & I can tell you there is at least 1 female character in each series (5 character cards each series & around 8 series planned), but I think I will keep the characters a surprise until each part is released.

Part 2 is due out sometime in late October, & I hope to finish a new series of 5 in around 8 parts total (every month or every other month), & hopefully fans of my art on the forum will look forward to these character cards!

***And YES you do need to get more active on this board again, the MOTU art community needs your art & ideas!!

Originally Posted by Hemotoggy

Very nice, I'm not usually into the varying looks of these characters, but these do stand out as something special. Great work!

Thank you so much for the feedback Hemotoggy, I really appreciate your kind words!

***update***

UPDATE 1: For those of you who may have saved the "He-Man" image for your own collection, you may want to re-save the image from the initial post, as I updated him in couple ways, including making his image bigger. Thanks!

UPDATE 2: I have also updated the "Anom" image with some added color. Thanks!